JPANet Action Alert: Tell our Leaders Not to Move the U.S. Embassy in Israel and Remove Hope for Peace

JPANet Action Alert: Tell our Leaders Not to Move the U.S. Embassy in Israel and Remove Hope for Peace

By Middle East & Europe - Global Ministries on February 14, 2017

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on a state visit to Washington, where he is seeking support from President Trump and Congress to advance his settlement-expansion agenda.

Since the beginning of the year Congress has introduced multiple bills seeking to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and to retract tacit support the U.S. gave a UN Security Council in December that said Israel’s settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory has “no legal validity” and must stop.

President Trump has promised to tilt the U.S. in favor of increased Israeli control over the West Bank, turning away from long-standing American policy to curb settlement expansion as part of international efforts to end the occupation and reach a balanced two-state peace agreement. Trump has nominated New York attorney David Friedman, a proponent and funder of illegal, Jewish-only Israeli settlements, as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Mr. Freidman has suggested that he may live in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, further complicating the signal the U.S. sends about the status of Jerusalem and the occupation.